I recently got a Sony CECH-ZED1U Playstation 3D LED TV off a guy who was very disgruntled with Sony not honoring the warranty. This display is almost new, no dust inside or anything. It has what is apparently a very common problem with these displays and when you power it on the screen never comes on and the indicator comes on blue, then green, and finally flashes red twice, a pause, red twice, a pause and on and on until you shut it off.

I found many people complaining about their TV failing the same way, including many lengthy discussion threads on the official Playstation forums, but nobody seems to have any idea what the actual cause of the problem is or how to go about repairing it. One person reported replacing the power supply with an ebay one and having no change in the symptoms. The two blink pattern must be a code but I haven't been able to find any service literature to define what it means.

I opened it up and checked out the power supply (which doesn't have any inverter because it's an LED backlight.) It looks to be of surprisingly decent quality and the the +5, +12, and +24 outputs are all working ok.

I attached some quick pictures, everything looks ok and I don't see any burned spots on the boards. I don't have a scope but I do have a good Fluke DMM and I'm not terrible at soldering SMT components. This display would be quite nice if I could get it going.

The first pic is pretty much everything that's there except the ancillary things like the speakers and buttons. The top board is part of the LCD and is directly attached to the ribbons coming out of the panel. I attached a more zoomed out pic.

Ah - I did a bit of research. Thought this was a PS3 with an LCD display but it's just some kind of branding? Anyway, the problem is most likely on the main board, since the PSU is working. If I could find a service manual...... I'll see if I can ask a friend if they can track one down.

Yeah it's a branding thing. It's just a 3D LED display with two HDMI and Component input but it is intended to be used with the PS3 (they don't even give you a remote since the PS3 can turn it on using HDMI CEC) but but you don't have to and it will work with other video sources or a computer (well, if it turned on that is ) A service manual would be great

No problem, there's got to be one out there somewhere. I think the longest discussion on the Playstation forums about this or the random screen blanking issue these have (which seems to lead to the red light sooner or later) is around 65 pages with thousands of views. Clearly, many of these that are in warranty are being repaired and someone, somewhere works in a service center and is fixing these and knows what the deal is.

For a lack of any better things to try, I checked out the voltage regulators I could find using the information in the linked post. They are LD1117A adjustable type (Same as shown in the post)

In the area above the front panel switch/led connector (the leftmost one) there are two regulators, U12 and one I can't find marked on the silkscreen:

Unmarked
LD1117A
Pin1 - .553v
Pin2 - 1.803v
Pin3 - 3.343v

U12
LD1117A
Pin1 - 2.092v
Pin2 - 3.343v
Pin3 - 2.092v

Then up above near the unpopulated header is U20:

U20
LD1117A
Pin1 - .556v
Pin2 - 1.808v
Pin3 - 3.464v

By my math (Pin1 + 1.25 = Pin2 if good) that gives two 1.8v outputs and one 3.3v that are working properly. Now I know how to test voltage regulators.

I then decided to remove the main board because I could just to see what was on the other side. There isn't much besides some components and some silkscreen on the PCB as to the connector pinout. I attached a pic.

I tried starting it without the IR bar (for driving the 3D glasses), the backlight, and the speakers unplugged with no change. I tried starting it without the ribbons to the LCD panel connected, no change.

Yeah, it's going to be hard to find out as I think 99% of people are using only the HDMI with this TV. I would normally attribute random blanking to crappy HDMI/HDCP implementation (I got in some giant major Japanese brand professional displays at work once and they only worked right with certain BD players after convincing corporate their firmware needed to be fixed) but it could be the processor or something similarly important dying as well.

I haven't seen anywhere online that I can buy a main board for these, only one vendor I saw had a listing but they were out of stock. So I guess the search for knowledge continues....

The monitor is still sitting here pushed off to the side of forgotten projects. It looks like the main board is not working but short of a direct replacement I don't know what is wrong at the component level or if it is repairable. I haven't found a source for good main boards so it's pretty much dead in the water unless someone with more skill or resources can figure out what is wrong with these boards.

I've unplugged the backlight (along will all other non-essential items) and no change. This set does not have a separate t-con board, the ribbons from the LCD go to the mainboard. It's more like a computer monitor than a TV set in overall construction. See the pic in post #3.

Hi all,
I was reading this thread, and in my opinion, the problem lies 99% in the main board, but since the posted voltages from MB voltage regulators were spot on, it's not a voltage/shorted component problem.

I would suggest, if possible, to find a good laptop/cell phone repair service, and ask the guy to try a reflow of the 3 chips located on MB (two with heatsinks and the one without). My bet is on them, poor connections rather than component failure, since all had the correct voltages on them.

I think it is worth a shot, since it would be less expenssive than a direct MB replacement, wich aniway you say it is hard to find.

Adi

__________________
In a transistor circuit protected by a fuse, the transistor will always blow to protect the fuse.

Hi all,
I was reading this thread, and in my opinion, the problem lies 99% in the main board, but since the posted voltages from MB voltage regulators were spot on, it's not a voltage/shorted component problem.

I would suggest, if possible, to find a good laptop/cell phone repair service, and ask the guy to try a reflow of the 3 chips located on MB (two with heatsinks and the one without). My bet is on them, poor connections rather than component failure, since all had the correct voltages on them.

I think it is worth a shot, since it would be less expenssive than a direct MB replacement, wich aniway you say it is hard to find.

Adi

I was thinking of taking a heat gun to the two chips on the main board. Much like you do when fixing a PS3 or Xbox with red light failure. I got the TV for practically nothing, so I wouldn't be losing anything if I fry it. I'll report back with the results later.